The Bridge of Business

If a business had nine lives, it’s High Point Furniture in Jasper. After beginning as a shoe and antique store downtown, High Point has evolved into one of Alabama’s best-kept furniture secrets. 

 Words by Terrell Manasco | Images by Blakeney Clouse and courtesy of Reggie Watts

The old Town Creek Bridge in Jasper, like the one in London, had been falling down for years. 

 By the 1990s, its structure had severely deteriorated and it was eventually closed for repairs. Although the closing was the coup de grace for one local business, it became the impetus of opportunity that subsequently launched High Point Furniture in Jasper. 

 Our story begins with an Ohio native named Charles V. Hockenberry. Born in 1927, “Chuck” quit high school and enlisted in the military by lying about his age. After serving in WWII, he received honorable discharges from the Army, Coast Guard, and Merchant Marines, returned home, and looked for work. 

 Reggie Watts, Chuck’s stepson for many years, recalls how Chuck got his start in the shoe business. “He went to get a job at a shoe store and was told he didn't have enough experience,” Reggie explains. “It made him mad, so he went back the next day and told them he had more experience now. And the guy hired him.” 

 In 1957, Chuck came to Jasper to accept a position with Top Dollar Stores. He left years later to work for a shoe company in Dallas, but returned in 1980. “He always told Bernard Weinstein (founder of Bernard’s Store for Men),‘If you ever decide to sell the store, let me know,’” Reggie says. “He got the call while he was in Dallas that Bernard had died.That's how he came back to Jasper.”

 Beverly Hockenberry, Reggie’s mother, grew up working on the cotton farms of Winston County, but moved to Arley after high school. After she and Reggie’s dad divorced, she needed to support herself and her son. “I had never worked outside the home,” Beverly says. “I didn't have any credit, didn't have a job record, so I had nothing going for me other than a hobby— piddling with antiques.”

 For a while, Beverly sold antiques out of her home to pay the bills, trusting in God to fill in the gaps. In the mid-80s, she moved her business to the old Engel’s building on 19th Street. “I started with antiques and a little bit of junk in that building, along with other people doing the same thing,” she says. 

 Around that time, Chuck sold his shoe business adjacent to Bernard’s, which he now owned, and moved the inventory to the Engel’s building. He and Beverly subsequently became business partners and Chuck-N-Berry’s was born. “After that, we just expanded,” Beverly recalls. “I had a good business, then I expanded into jewelry. Along with shoes, Chuck started doing clothing. It just grew from there.”

 A few years later, Chuck and Beverly became partners again, this time in marriage. Chuck-N-Berry’s was doing well. Life was grand. Then, after the old Town Creek Bridge closed for repairs, business screeched to a halt. “That greatly interrupted business for about a year,” Beverly says. “It was where Airport Road came into 19th Street, so it cut off all our regular lines of business.”

 After dropping clothing and shoes, Beverly and Chuck focused on antiques to attract more customers. Chuck-N-Berry’s was no more. Enter the Ole Town Creek Mall. “We started doing antique malls, like Montgomery, Huntsville, and Birmingham,” Beverly says. “We went once a month to Scott's Antique Market in Atlanta to supplement our income.” 

 The connection with Scott’s was made by Reggie’s older brother, Jared Key, who had been refinishing and selling antiques after an 8-year stint in the U.S. Navy. Beverly and Chuck also teamed with Jared to refinish and sell mahogany tables, an effort that provided a perfect segue into the furniture world of North Carolina. 

 Growing up, Reggie helped at the store during the summers, but admits that, at the time, it was the last thing he wanted in a career. After attending Walker College, Reggie graduated from the University of Alabama with a degree in psychology. He took a year off before starting the graduate program for counseling. “During the year off, I was basically the delivery guy at the store and tried to do repair work,” he says. “I thought it was going to be a short-term gig.” 

 As the business began gradually adding new furniture, Reggie’s role also evolved. By the time he completed his first year of graduate school, he was getting his feet wet on the business side. “Through a connection we made in Atlanta, we bought a load of furniture there,” Reggie says. “I borrowed money on my Sea-Doo. That's how I got started.”

 In the beginning, new furniture had to be picked up in High Point, North Carolina. Beverly recalls one of the first trips they made. “Reggie was too young to have a truck rented in his name and I'd never driven a big truck before,” she says. “We get up there and we've got more than one truck load, so we have to rent a 24-foot Ryder truck.”

“And we came back through Atlanta,” Reggie adds. 

 “Reggie has no mercy and just keeps pedal to the metal,” Beverly continues, her voice intense. “We get back to the store and I remember Chuck standing at that front door in amazement and saying, 'How did you do that?' I said, ‘Chuck, I mean this literally— I prayed every mile of the way.’”

 Beverly and Reggie made hundreds of trips over a ten-year span, some more memorable than others. When Hurricane Floyd ripped through the Carolinas in 1999, they spent a night in the rental truck because the hotels were full. 

 For years, Reggie dreamed of a career in psychology, but his growing involvement with the business convinced him where he belonged. He eventually joined Chuck and Beverly as partners. 

 Gradually antiques began to be replaced by new, high-end furniture, and the Ole Town Creek Mall became known as High Point Furniture, named after the “furniture capital of the world.” In 2007, High Point relocated to a new building on Highway 78 with a 26,000 square-foot showroom.Now the store carries name brands like Rowe, La-Z-Boy, Hooker, and Bernhardt, and offers 24 months financing at zero percent interest with approved credit.

 “It's been an evolution,” Reggie says. “Like Mom says, there have been times that God has closed one door but opened another. We just rolled with it and embraced it.” 

 In August 2014, Chuck Hockenberry celebrated his 87th birthday. One month later, he passed away. He is remembered as a savvy businessman with a remarkable gift of making everyone feel special. “Chuck was the kind of person that, no matter how you came in or how you were dressed, he always treated people like they were the most important person in the world,” Beverly says. “That was his philosophy.”

 In business and in life, sometimes one door closes so another can open. Perhaps High Point Furniture would not be the successful business it is today, or even exist, had it not been for the closing of an old, crumbling bridge. 78